Civitan club finds unique way to help kids
After watching some try to toss it like a javelin, others use more of a shot-put technique and most go with an underhand swing, Drew Chaddock chose the latter.
“When you train your whole life to throw trees, it feels really good,” the 25-year-old from Dublin said Saturday with a laugh, joking about his winning Christmas tree toss of 30.4 feet.
“I play a lot of golf, so I tried to think of a golf swing. You’ve got to get it rolling too.”
Looking for a unique way to raise money for Westerville Special Olympics and the special needs programs at the Westerville Parks and Recreation Department, the Westerville Area Civitan Club on Saturday hosted its firstever Christmas tree tossing competition.
Tom Daugherty, president of the Westerville Civitan, said the idea came from
similar events held in Germany and a handful of other places.
The group, which also hosts an annual dance, swim party and Easter egg hunt for special needs kids, hopes to grow participation as word gets out, Daugherty said. He hoped Saturday’s event would raise up to $1,000. The entry fee was $10 a person and $40 for a team.
“It’s just a really neat, fun event,” Daugherty said, as participants registered at the Everal Barn and Homestead. “You get all burned out during the holidays, getting stressed out. This is the first opportunity to get outdoors, have a little fun . ... Plus, it’s for a good cause.”
He also hopes it draws attention to the organization, which, like other local civic groups, is struggling to maintain members.
“I worry that participation in civic organizations has dropped to an all-time low,” he said. “I’m hoping to get name recognition and engage the community enough that they will start being involved a little more.”
The trees were
“It’s just a really neat, fun event. You get all burned out during the holidays, getting stressed out. This is the first opportunity to get outdoors, have a little fun . ... Plus, it’s for a good cause.”
trimmed to be between 19 and 20 pounds, but clearly the preference was for the thinner trees.
“I thought it would be easier than it was,” said Alice Wilson, coordinator for Westerville Special Olympics, the lone woman to attempt a tree toss.
Wilson was thrilled to see the Civitan try a unique fundraising idea. “They do so much for our group,” she said.
Ken Adkins, who ran the event while sporting a plastic Viking helmet, expects participation to increase.
“Since I’ve been in this club, everything we’ve started we babystep it— it always starts out small and becomes bigger and bigger,” he said.
Not surprisingly, the beefiest team won the inaugural event — four members of the Otterbein University fraternity Pi Kappa Phi, who also are members of the football team. Winston Spiker, 21, had the secondlongest throw of the day, giving him team bragging rights, while Trey Playforth, 22, placed third overall.
A fraternity alumnus is a civitan and came by the house to tell members about the event, Playforth said. “We said yeah, we’d love to.”
The fraternity does some other charity work, such as collecting canned goods for Promise House, an on-campus food pantry. The group said they plan to participate in the tree toss again.
“We’ll try to get more teams out here, get a couple more Greek organizations involved,” Playforth said.
Tom Daugherty, president of the Westerville Civitan
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